Double victory for China at Asian Nations Chess Cup
China won the gold medals in both the open and women's sections at the Asian Team Championship in Zaozhuang, Shandong (China). The tournament lasted 9 rounds and included some of the strongest Asian chess players such as Wang Hao, Krishnan Saskiran, Le Quang Liem, Li Chao, Harikrishna Pentala and Wang Yue.
Best of the Asian nations: China 1, with L-R Li Chao, Wang Yue, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi and Wang Hao | Photo by Fan Lulu
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The Asian Nations Chess Cup took place May 19-26 in Zaozhuang, Shandong, China with both an open section and a women section. The open section included 14 teams which played 9 rounds. After beating Iraq 4-0 and Kazakhstan 3.5-0.5, China 1 (the host country played with two teams) met its first real opponent in the third round. The match against India was a fierce fight, and eventually ended in 2-2 with four decisive games:
The playing hall of the Asian Nations Cup
China 1 won all other matches in the remainder of the tournament. The toughest was in round 5 against Vietnam, which was decided on board 3:
India won the silver medals because they played 2-2 in two other matches: against China 2 and against Vietnam. The second team from China in fact finished a point ahead of Vietnam to take bronze.
Asian Nations Chess Cup 2012 | Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
| 1 | 1 | China 1 | CHN 1 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 28.5 | 0 | 178.75 | 271.0 | |
| 2 | 2 | India | IND | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 26.5 | 0 | 146.25 | 239.0 | |
| 3 | 4 | China 2 | CHN 2 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 23.5 | 0 | 102.75 | 174.0 | |
| 4 | 3 | Vietnam | VIE | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 25.5 | 0 | 80.00 | 180.5 | |
| 5 | 6 | Iran | IRI | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 22.5 | 0 | 68.25 | 145.0 | |
| 6 | 7 | Singapore | SIN | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 22.0 | 0 | 51.50 | 128.0 | |
| 7 | 12 | Indonesia | INA | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 20.0 | 0 | 48.75 | 94.0 | |
| 8 | 5 | Kazakhstan | KAZ | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 17.5 | 0 | 81.75 | 155.5 | |
| 9 | 9 | Iraq | IRQ | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 17.0 | 0 | 41.50 | 70.0 | |
| 10 | 8 | Mongolia | MGL | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 17.5 | 0 | 68.25 | 138.0 | |
| 11 | 11 | Korea | KOR | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 13.5 | 0 | 12.50 | 52.0 | |
| 12 | 10 | Yemen | YEM | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 11.0 | 0 | 13.75 | 34.0 | |
| 13 | 13 | Hong Kong | HKG | 9 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 5.5 | 0 | 1.50 | 24.0 | |
| 14 | 14 | ChineseTaipei | TPE | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
The women's section went even better for China: their first team won all their matches while their second team edged out India on tiebreak to clinch the silver medals.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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